Despite huge traffic problem in the winter capital of the state, the authorities have no plan to smoothen its flow, except creating “check nakas” to fine private and commercial vehicles.
The Jammu roads are flooded with vehicles these days as for the limited road length (about 500 km), about 6 lakhs vehicles have been registered in Jammu district. As many as 5,86,388 vehicles stand registered with the RTO, Jammu, till March 2015. Now with the Durbar Move in Jammu, about 50,000 vehicles have been added to the city.
“Traffic jams have become a daily routine in Jammu city and after the secretariat move the situation has become worse. It seems like the authorities have given up all the efforts to smoothen the traffic flow in Jammu,” said Sahil Magotra, a resident of New Plot.
“We cannot blame only the traffic police or the Jammu Municipal Corporation for jams. This situation has arisen due to lack of planning by the previous and present governments. They just spoke about decongestion of Jammu city, but no step has been taken till date,” he added.
The state government in 2007-08 had shelved Rs 30-crore project of constructing a flyover over the Rehari Chungi-Ambphalla-New Plot-Janipur- Ban Talab road.
Later in 2014 to decongest the BC road, the Jammu Bus Stand was supposed to be shifted to the ISBT, Narwal, but the ISBT remains defunct and the Bus Stand is still on the BC road.
All the roads of the city remain jam-packed during peak hours and vehicles keep moving in slow speed in the entire city, which not only wastes time and fuel, but also sparks temper of people.
To streamline the traffic system in the city, the traffic police have started its drive to check traffic violation in the city. The department had booked 72,000 traffic violators in November only.
“A check on traffic violations is mandatory, but is it the only duty of the traffic police? Will it help in streamlining the traffic flow of the city?” asked Gopal Sharma, a resident of Talab Tillo.
“The government needs to take some immediate steps to get rid of this major problem of the city and make a plan to fast track decongestion of the narrow roads,” he added.
Despite repeated attempts, Traffic officials could not be contacted for comment.
Govt has no plan to smoothen traffic in overburdened Jammu
